The joe mad uncanny xmen run

So of late I have been buying some back isues I had and enjoyed as a teen for a cheap price. The run I have been buying is from 320-350 plus astonishing xmen 1-4. I remember my favorite three books at the time were uncanny by Mad,joe kelly and Mcguiness deadpool, and morrisons JLA. The issues that I liked the best was the Joe mad drawn issues. I read the whole 4part astonishing series and legion quest the other night and I remembered how much I loved it! Though Mad didnt do any interior art for legion quest he did a cover or two. I figured I would buy the all books and be left cold with the art/stories, but I am so glad I was wrong! During the Mad run the book was written by Scott Lobdell, and he in my opinion is one of the best x-men writers to come along. I loved the way he wrote storm and how he wrote the blink/sabertooth relationship in AOA. So anyone else a fan of this (in my opinion) great underratted run of uncanny xmen?

Lobdell's run is decent up to AOA, but most of the stuff afterwards is abominable IMO. The only thing that saved that material is that the trainwreck Davis and Claremont runs that followed made it look readable in comparison.

I've got no time for Joe Madureira either. IIRC he was proceeded on Uncanny by Peterson and Romita Jr, both of which are far better.

Lobdell's writing was pretty hit and miss. He did some fantastic down-time and emotional issues and the AoA is a modern classic, but most of the times he tried to do big action pieces it went really bad. Onslaught was a complete disaster, due largely to the fact that Lobdell was making it up as he went along with no sort of advance planning. He was also terrible at writing Magneto, usually depicting him as a foaming-at-the-mouth lunatic. His last big storylines, Operation Zero Tolerance and Gambit's trial, were both ended with abrupt rush job finishes when he left the books abruptly.

I did like Maduriera's art, though. It was distinctive and polished, even if a little too anime influenced for my taste. It's really a pity that all he did after the X-Men was disappoint his fans with the unfinished Battle Chasers and really, really horrible Ultimates 3.

Lobdell's WildCats 2.0 run started off really fun, too bad Charest couldn't keep up. That first issue, with Grifter, is probably the best the series has ever been.

Lobdell's X-men was good enough, but Joe Mad and Bob Harras really kept it from being better, not to mention all the crossover crap back then. Can you imagine having to actually write the mess that was Onslaught with a straight face? Yikes.